Kyle left this morning for Florida where he is renting an AirBnB for a week. This will be his first foray into the Digital Nomadic lifestyle he seeks to embrace. Pictured here is what he calls his “battle station.” A lightweight, easy-to-transport computer setup with which he can do his job from anywhere in the world given electricity and access to the internet. His plan is to spend the winter months in warm climates and the rest of his time in Boston. The warmth and sunshine are good for his soul.
The month of January always inspires me to bring organization to my life. Today, I spent a few minutes designing some bit holders that I will use with my cordless impact drivers. The next time I go into Formlabs for my consulting work, I will print them out. The round holes are for magnets.
Our internet remains down so I spent more time in my photo archive. Today’s photo features Ted Lasso himself, Mr. Jason Sudeikis. He is seen here in downtown Concord filming Tumbledown, a romantic comedy. When our streaming services are restored, I think I shall see if I can interest Jeanine in watching this with me.
For the past several days, our internet service has been intermittent. It is amazing how much I have come to rely on connectivity for my work, the new house design, entertainment, and shopping. Stranded for hours with no network connection, I decided to spend time curating my photo collection. It is currently at 106,000 photos and I like to keep culling it back to less than 100,000. One of the photos I came across today was this one of Maya and Nala. It is one of my favorites from that time period.
With the recent passing of Sydney Poitier, many celebrities have come forward to pay tribute to the legend. One of his close friends was Harry Belafonte. When I saw him on TV speaking fondly of their relationship, it reminded me that I had a photo of him in my collection. He is pictured above, on the right, standing next to my uncle at his wedding. I am assuming he was his best man. My uncle Ernie was a professional musician and played guitar in Belafonte’s band as well as with Tony Bennet, pictured with him below.
Sometimes I acquire a tool that is destined to make me happy. Such is the case with this Austrian-made 3″ long, magnetic pocket level. It is engineered to be very accurate and the workmanship is superb. I currently own levels that include lengths of 12″, 24″, 36″, and 60″. Each has its own application and they have all seen extensive use. The newest member of the family will be invaluable when the surface to be leveled is very small and by virtue of the fact that it is tiny enough to be on hand at all times. Borrowing from an old adage used in photography, “the best level is the one you have with you.”
For weeks now, I have been trying to solve a mystery. This morning, I did so with the aid of my drone. With Swiss clock precision, at 6:55 AM, a half dozen or so cars will pull into the parking lot across from our house and line up in a row. At 7 AM, a large van pulls up and some kind of exchange occurs after which the cars drive away one at a time and then the van pulls away. For weeks I have assigned nefarious explanations to this carefully synchronized exchange only able to observe it from the ground level and at quite a distance. It appeared that the driver of the van was distributing something to the drivers of the cars and then they immediately drove off. For a while this seemed to be happening every day and then it stopped. With the benefit of an aerial view, the mystery has been solved. The cars are dropping kids off for some private school to which they are shuttled. It is a shame the explanation is so mundane. I had developed a number of mystery show worth explanations that were far more exciting. The break in routine was due to holiday vacations. What I thought was the driver returning from the cars were the kids sequentially leaving their cars for the shuttle.
It was a grey and cold day. I spent much of it indoors doing work for a new client and organizing my tools, something I tend to do every year at this time. I also spent several hours learning about the Insulated Concrete Foundation (ICF) system offered by a company called Logix. Our builder has recommended this vendor and it looks like a great choice. Jeanine prepared an exceptional minestrone for dinner bringing the day to a perfect end.
When she woke up this morning, Jeanine announced that it was a perfect day for cross country skiing. I joined her (on foot) for a nice tour of the Newbury Field trails which received about 8 inches of snow yesterday. It was nice to get out into the fresh air, especially since we have been staying home so much to avoid potential exposure to Covid.
We got our first significant snowfall of the season today. Concord received 6-8 inches dodging the brunt of the storm which left Boston with more than a foot in some places. It was my first opportunity to use our new electric snowblower. It handled the task well enough but my expectations were calibrated to the difference between an electric car and a gas-powered one. I imagined it might throw snow into tomorrow and alas it only threw it far enough. The cab I installed, as on my last snowblower, proved invaluable but I will need to refine the positioning when I get a chance. It took about 1.3kWh of energy to complete the driveway which was well less than the 2kWh of batteries I own. By way of comparison, my e-tron stores 83.6kWh. Imagine if someone made an electric snowblower attachment that connected to my car. I could plow the entire driveway in a few minutes.
Perhaps the only thing about our Road House that is inadequate is the size of the garage. It is a tight squeeze for two cars with room for little else. In particular, we have no convenient place to store our snowblower, yard tools, and bikes. Yesterday, I ordered an 8’x6′ shed which will arrive unassembled, presumably within 2 to 3 weeks barring any supply chain issues. Given the temperature today was hovering just above the freezing mark and it is not likely to get much warmer any time soon, I decided to fabricate the platform base on which the shed will be mounted. I used 2x4s to fashion a torsion box frame which I skinned with 1/2″ plywood on both sides (screwed and glued). It took me an hour to procure the lumber and 3 hours to complete the project working in the garage and on the driveway. It is as solid as a rock. The next time temperatures favor outdoor work, I will place and level the concrete blocks on which the platform will rest.
Pictured left is Maya’s friend Connor who has been staying with us for the last few days. This evening, he organized a family cooking party and taught us how to make potstickers. Kyle and Nico joined in and we also had a brief visit from Grace, one of Maya’s high school pals. Potstickers are very labor-intensive to prepare and a certain degree of finesse is required. Many hands made for quick work and also resulted in several unusually shaped dumplings. The meal was delicious and the joy of cooking together will long be remembered fondly.
While on a 3.3-mile exercise walk to the post office and back, Jeanine and I came across this walkway made of large (5’x5′) stones. I can’t recall seeing such a large flat top stone ever before. We both liked the idea of using something like this for the walkway to our front door of the River House and the image has been added to our idea folder.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
